'Customer needs met': The buzzphrase used as Lloyds staff are still pressured into flogging deals by 'unachievable' targets and fear of job loss

Lloyds Bank has come under fire for its 'unachievable' front line staff targets that mean just a third of workers are hitting their quota, risking the 'wrong kind of behaviours' occurring in branches.

Despite efforts to reform staff incentive schemes, the bank's own figures reveal the pressure branch staff are still under with just 34 per cent hitting targets for 'customer needs met', which often means the sale of one of the bank's products.

Meanwhile, a Lloyds worker who wished to remain anonymous said the pressure in branches is worse than ever and that reforms to the bank's target schemes were 'just a disguise' to give the impression staff prioritise service above sales.

Under pressure: A whistleblower at Lloyds says despite the bank claiming targets are now customer service focused, it is not the case in his branch

Staff who fail to meet their target for 'customer needs met' can be placed on the bank's Performance Improvement Process which can result in them losing their job, according to the Lloyds TSB Group Union.

The union, which is specifically for Lloyds Banking Group staff, says it will relay its concerns to the Financial Conduct Authority.

The criticism comes despite an overhaul of the bank's staff incentive schemes that was triggered by a review by the City regulator.

The FCA said in a report last month that all major high street banks have either replaced or made substantial changes to high-pressure financial incentive schemes which resulted in vast mis-selling of products.

Lloyds changed the terminology of its incentive scheme so that 'sales' were replaced with 'customer needs met'. It also stopped the practice whereby staff were incentivised to sell one product, usually those that produced higher profits, over others.

However, it has retained targets for 'customer needs met' and in the final three months of last year 71 per cent of senior personal banking advisers (SPBAs), 65 per cent of financial consultants (FCs) and 64 per cent of customer service assistants (CSAs) did not meet their targets in the last three months of 2013.

It means that out of 11,237 staff only 3,779 hit target. Despite this, Lloyds has raised the targets for both Q1 and Q2 of 2014.

In a newsletter this month, the union said: 'Unachievable targets drive the wrong kinds of behaviours, to the detriment of customers potentially.

'Moreover, staff who know full well that they are not going to achieve their targets become stressed, disillusioned and demotivated.'

It added: ‘If 67 per cent of SPBAs, FCs and CSAs are on average not achieving targets then there must be something fundamentally wrong with the targeting model.

‘To then increase those targets again, in some cases substantially, which is what the bank has done for quarter two, seems quite perverse.’

Staff placed on the Performance Improvement Process are under intense pressure to boost their performance to the level required, which is the original target. If they don’t reach this, they could face the chop.

Hitting targets: Targets are set each quarter and have increased for the April - June 2014 period

A member of front-line staff, speaking anonymously to This is Money, said the pressure to sell products such as paid-for current accounts and personal loans is still extremely high.

He claimed desperate advisers are resorting to offering customers, many of whom don’t speak English as a first language, bigger loans they do not ask for to garner more points in order to hit targets – the larger the loan, the higher the points staff obtain towards their target.

The whistleblower, who works at a busy London Lloyds Bank branch, said: ‘The bank pretends to focus on customers but in reality they only care about sales, sales and sales.

'They've increased our branch sales targets this quarter making it more difficult to hit.

‘They re-labelled our sales targets as “customer needs” but we are still encouraged to push products. In my opinion, it’s just a disguise.’

A Lloyds spokesman said no product is incentivised over another.

This, it said, means a personal loan wouldn't be incentivised over any other product that might meet the same customer need, such as a credit card or further advance on a mortgage.

A Lloyds spokesman said: ‘These allegations do not reflect our approach. Our key objective is to help our customers manage their money in the best possible way.

‘Our training, processes and measures are focused on providing excellent service to our valued customers.

‘For example, before any variable payment is made, colleagues must first pass a rigorous set of measures that ensure everything they do, generates the right result for customers.’

It added that staff have seen a greater focus on providing ‘great service,’ and meeting its ‘customers’ needs.’ Its bonus scheme, it said, includes a wide range of objectives including how staff manager risk and provide customer service.

Lloyds says that if staff do have concerns over targets, they should speak to their manager, HR or an independently managed whistleblowing line.

An
investigation by This is Money in September 2012 found that Lloyds TSB – now split into Lloyds Bank and TSB - was pressuring staff to flog products that produced higher profits for the bank.

We revealed how staff garnered more incentive scheme points by selling products such as paid-for current accounts.

Our
revelations coincided with a review of bank incentive schemes by the
Financial Conduct Authority and, soon after, Lloyds stopped the sale of
theseaccounts in-branch for almost a year while staff were retrained.

Our reports prompted members of staff of other banks and building societies including Nationwide and Santander to contact us with who details of high-pressure sales tactics inside their branches.

The FCA fined Lloyds £28million in December last year for pushing advisers to sell unsuitable insurance and investments while also threatening 50 per cent pay cuts if they missed sales targets.